The U.S. today faces a crisis of democratic backsliding spurred by a right-wing populist political movement. Common ways of understanding why this is happening fail to answer some critical questions. How can right-wing populist leaders claim to be in favor of the working class yet retain the latter’s support even when they support policies favoring plutocrats and undermine institutions designed to empower workers? Why are the richest leaders of U.S. technology companies, famous for their secular libertarianism, politically aligned with Christian nationalists who want to impose their socially conservative views on others? Why are they increasingly attracted to authoritarian politics, even though this means they must subordinate themselves to the arbitrary rule of the President? I shall show how the answers to these questions become clear once we see that right-wing populist politics is rooted in an authoritarian version of the Protestant work ethic, and grasp the social psychology of submission in authoritarian
regimes.

Elizabeth Anderson is John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she has taught since 1987. She specializes in moral and political philosophy, social and feminist epistemology, and the philosophy of the social sciences.